Thoughts on Art, Inspiration, Creativity and Spirit

Tag Archives: Eating

How did you do last week observing and becoming mindful of the empty space around objects? Even though I’m artist I found this practice to be rather challenging. My week was busy and I didn’t slow down very often. So this afternoon when I took my walk, I observed the space around the trees and tree branches. The sky did seem more vibrant and the blue more intense. In fact, I think this may qualify as practicing three of our mindfulness tasks-seeing blue, observing trees, and observing empty space.

This Week’s Practice: One Bite at a Time

This week’s practice, to take one bite at a time, reminds me of being told as a child to “chew each bite of your food 37 times” (or whatever that number was-30 something.) Being told that as kids we were lead to believe that chewing a bite of food for 30 some odd times would improve our digestion. All it really did was destroy the taste of the food and make me impatient.

Taking one bite at a time, however, is more practical. In this practice we are asked to take a bite of food or a sip of liquid and then to put down our utensil or cup. Why? Well, how many of you practice eating by the shovelful? You know, take a bite, chew a little, take another bite before finishing the first bite and so on and so forth. Our go-go-go time pressured society doesn’t always encourage us to enjoy our food.

But isn’t that the point of having a nice meal? To eat slowly. To savor. When we eat slowly, we feel full sooner. When we feel full sooner, the better we become about the amount of food we eat.

The other aspect of this practice is becoming aware of impatience. Eating quickly may be considered an example of impatience. If eating quickly is a frequent occurrence, in what other aspects of your life are you impatient? And if you’re impatient in many areas of your life, do you need to ask yourself why you’re in such a rush to get through life?

When the mind is absent, thinking about the past or the future, we only half-taste our food. When our awareness rests in our mouth, we are fully present as we eat.

Reflection: There can be no party in the mouth if the mind is not invited to attend. -Dr Jan Chozen Bays

Each week I am sharing a mindfulness practice based on the book How to Train a Wild Elephant by Jan Chozen Bays. To learn more about mindfulness, please read the introductory post here.

Last week we practiced mindfulness by appreciating our hands. Are you appreciating your hands more?

I found this practice difficult. I found it hard to observe my hands while doing another task. My focus was on the task at hand (ha, ha) not on how my hands moved in unison, in partnership or individually.

Wait, I must have noticed something if I knew they were working in unison, in partnership, or individually. Okay, so maybe my subconscious was paying attention on some level. I think the point here is that, once again, we often move so quickly through our day that we don’t notice what we’re doing. What we’re REALLY doing.

I will continue with this particular practice but focus on a smaller task, such as putting lotion on my hands.

This Week’s Practice: When you eat, just eat

Oh this is a good one. This week we are asked to remove all distractions when we eat. That means no watching TV when eating. No reading a book or newpaper or magazine while eating. No iPad, No computer, No nothing when eating.

Why? Because when we eat we often multi-task. We sit at our desk at work, eat lunch, and surf the Internet or catch up on email. We eat and talk on the phone. We go through a drive-through, pick up a meal, and scarf it down in the car.

Not the best way to enjoy our food is it?

So this week when you eat. Just eat. Remove all distractions. Start with one meal, slow down, and enjoy your food.

Reflection: When eating, just eat. When drinking, just drink. Mindfulness is the very best seasoning. -Jan Chozen Bays

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Hi Fellow Life Travelers! I'm Amy Crawley
I paint pictures inspired by spirit, live Reiki, and count my blessings to a part of it all.
This blog is an expression of my encounters with art, Reiki, creativity, imagination and spirit.

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